Interesting story... The first athelete to be banned under a "bio-passport" program may have been incorrectly 'sentenced' to a two year ban and German police may be going after the ISU and doping authorities.
Sweet.
Sweet.
gplama said:
It is what it is... For the past few years I've trained my as$ off from January to July, had my fun in the mountains and then sat on the couch again for 6 months before thinking "sh1t, I just packed on that 18Kg again because of too much bbq and beer". Every time I get back on the bike the number suck... and they suck bad - don't feel too bad. LOL
Then again, if you still have gimpy legs then it's no surprise that power sucks - shouldn't you be waiting until you can walk before sticking your eggshell pelvis on a saddle again?
I have the mother of all hilly roadraces to keep me entertained until the end of September - I have no choice but to train hard if I just want to make it around the course. I've never ridden, let alone raced over 3,000m before and certainly not up any climbs that are ~40km long. Was entering this event really a good idea? Was this really a good alternative to beer?
Up this weekend - 320km ride over 8 passes. 6,100+m of climbing. It's the same one I did last year, so I want to change the pacing a little to see what effect early pacing has on power on the second half of the event where all the hard climbs are and try out in a long event how those Hammer 'super wizzo no fatigue go faster' pills work. I never did tell the event organizer last year what was going through my mind on the final climb, which included a middle section of 12km @ 7.5%, topping out at
2500m. I think every expletive in the English language (and derivatives thereof) were used - until I turned around and took a look back into the valley and thought "that looks farking ace".
classic1 said:
She could certainly make my middle stump sticky. Definetly third leg before wicket. Brings new meaning to cricketing terms such as "full toss" and "head hunters" - the latter made even more apparent by those pads giving knee protection.
My cup would definetly runneth over.
Hmm, good tip.swampy1970 said:
I'm nearly 44, and I still haven't got it figured out. I mean, I know the fundamentals, but as far as hard sessions go, I'm still foggy on a few things, such as the duration of the sessions, the optimum amount of intervals (short and long ones); exactly how hard the short intervals should usually be; should the short intervals be total killer one session then backed off the next; how many hard days a week I should be doing; should I do two hard days one week then 4 the next; farkin macro cycles; should I add a 'monster' week once every 6 to 8 weeks, where I smash meself for four or five days; do 75% maxHR rides actually do anything? Etc, etc, et bloody cetera
But then.....I wonder if such details are all bollocks, coz plnety of pros do fark-all specific stuff -- they just race all season -- then come and a ride the fastest TT of their life at the Worlds. Similar for Brad Mcgee in 2004: as far as I know, he 'just' raced all season, then rocked up to the Olympics and gets a gold and silver medal on the track in the team and individual pursuit! What the farkin?!?! I think I read that he just "tops up" with some 1 min intervals for a week when he wants to do well in a pursuit, prologue or TT.
All I really do on my hard days are time-trial efforts, which can be anything from roughly 8mins to 35 mins, then as many loosely-structured, short intervals (~1 to ~3min) as I can be bothered. I sometimes finish of with some 75% to 80% stuff, but that's only so I feel like I'm actually doing something in the last 45min. I gave up trying to be a sprinter as a bad joke about 15 years ago, so i never do short sprints, and I don't reckon this has hurt me. In fact, I like the theory that slow-twitch fiber ratio can be increased, which is my excuse for not doing sprints
Sometimes I suspect I may be training too hard, but then ya hear about Jono doing that full-on motor-paced ride for 120km to Dromana and back, so, who knows?!
I'd like to smash a few young blokes in some local time-trials before I get too old and slow, but I'm a bit of a fat cripple with a dodgey back
Bernard Hinault smiles and thinks "Zut alors, all your pies belong to us"
... what the fcuk? Billy Hinault needs to figure that eggs go in the frying pan and not on a set of cranks!
... what the fcuk? Billy Hinault needs to figure that eggs go in the frying pan and not on a set of cranks!
Well, I'm no spring chicken - 40 next week - but training just getsless and less complicated. I just concentrate on riding at or near (but never over) threshold during winter (3x25 minutes with 5 minute rests) and 2 hour sessions during spring at 15 to 20% below threshold (again never over it). Sessions are done Sat/Sun/Tue/Thurs. Never going over threshold can mean that you have to go silly slow on the hills at times.
I find that going over threshold adds to the fatigue too much but staying near threshold adds to the power very nicely. When, and I've not reached this point yet with a power meter, I stop progressing power wise, I'll up the percentage I ride at in the sessions to 10 to 15% below and later through in some ~5 minutes efforts.
Back in 96 I found that the 4x25minute sessions helped more with chasing down attacks than doing short intervals did. Threshold power is king.
Dodgy back. Would that be a lower back that aches like fcuk after 40 to 60 minutes of hard effort? If so the second of these two stretches could be your friend. Just hold it for a minute - but breathe deeply all the way out and try and relax. More than likely it'll be 'very uncomfortable'.
Psoas Client Strething Guide
If you do have a tight psoas then you'll notice as you breathe and relax you'll go deeper into the stretch everytime you breath - kinda like the opposite of using a floor jack as you lift a car. Although it seems counter-intuative stretching that way to ease lower back pains (you'd think bending over rather than back) but the psoas (or iliospoas) is connected to the lower spine and is the main hip flexor - which is why this is the muscle to look at when you're getting back pain AND you're going hard in a low position. The pain isn't from bending over and using the glutes - it's from the hip flexor being too tight and being forced to come up higher than it likes. When one of the strongest muscles in your body is pulling on your spine, things tend to hurt.
If you spend most of the day sitting down then that doesn't help the hipflexors at all. They apparently get used to staying in the shortened position.
I'm off to Psoas Bodywork tonight. I'll make sure I don't think of you lot when I'm getting sorted out on the massage table... and no, not 'that' kind of massage. I'll be happier when I leave but there's no happy ending.
I find that going over threshold adds to the fatigue too much but staying near threshold adds to the power very nicely. When, and I've not reached this point yet with a power meter, I stop progressing power wise, I'll up the percentage I ride at in the sessions to 10 to 15% below and later through in some ~5 minutes efforts.
Back in 96 I found that the 4x25minute sessions helped more with chasing down attacks than doing short intervals did. Threshold power is king.
Dodgy back. Would that be a lower back that aches like fcuk after 40 to 60 minutes of hard effort? If so the second of these two stretches could be your friend. Just hold it for a minute - but breathe deeply all the way out and try and relax. More than likely it'll be 'very uncomfortable'.
Psoas Client Strething Guide
If you do have a tight psoas then you'll notice as you breathe and relax you'll go deeper into the stretch everytime you breath - kinda like the opposite of using a floor jack as you lift a car. Although it seems counter-intuative stretching that way to ease lower back pains (you'd think bending over rather than back) but the psoas (or iliospoas) is connected to the lower spine and is the main hip flexor - which is why this is the muscle to look at when you're getting back pain AND you're going hard in a low position. The pain isn't from bending over and using the glutes - it's from the hip flexor being too tight and being forced to come up higher than it likes. When one of the strongest muscles in your body is pulling on your spine, things tend to hurt.
If you spend most of the day sitting down then that doesn't help the hipflexors at all. They apparently get used to staying in the shortened position.
I'm off to Psoas Bodywork tonight. I'll make sure I don't think of you lot when I'm getting sorted out on the massage table... and no, not 'that' kind of massage. I'll be happier when I leave but there's no happy ending.
531Aussie said:Hmm, good tip.
I'm nearly 44, and I still haven't got it figured out. I mean, I know the fundamentals, but as far as hard sessions go, I'm still foggy on a few things, such as the duration of the sessions, the optimum amount of intervals (short and long ones); exactly how hard the short intervals should usually be; should the short intervals be total killer one session then backed off the next; how many hard days a week I should be doing; should I do two hard days one week then 4 the next; farkin macro cycles; should I add a 'monster' week once every 6 to 8 weeks, where I smash meself for four or five days; do 75% maxHR rides actually do anything? Etc, etc, et bloody cetera
But then.....I wonder if such details are all bollocks, coz plnety of pros do fark-all specific stuff -- they just race all season -- then come and a ride the fastest TT of their life at the Worlds. Similar for Brad Mcgee in 2004: as far as I know, he 'just' raced all season, then rocked up to the Olympics and gets a gold and silver medal on the track in the team and individual pursuit! What the farkin?!?! I think I read that he just "tops up" with some 1 min intervals for a week when he wants to do well in a pursuit, prologue or TT.
All I really do on my hard days are time-trial efforts, which can be anything from roughly 8mins to 35 mins, then as many loosely-structured, short intervals (~1 to ~3min) as I can be bothered. I sometimes finish of with some 75% to 80% stuff, but that's only so I feel like I'm actually doing something in the last 45min. I gave up trying to be a sprinter as a bad joke about 15 years ago, so i never do short sprints, and I don't reckon this has hurt me. In fact, I like the theory that slow-twitch fiber ratio can be increased, which is my excuse for not doing sprints
Sometimes I suspect I may be training too hard, but then ya hear about Jono doing that full-on motor-paced ride for 120km to Dromana and back, so, who knows?!
I'd like to smash a few young blokes in some local time-trials before I get too old and slow, but I'm a bit of a fat cripple with a dodgey back
Those riders are insane. They must have had bits of their pre-frontal lobes removed. And how's the bloke who has everything so far? His voice is even thinner than Beckham's.gplama said:
paulambry said:
Not that long... If you're racing upto 6 hours then 8 hours a week aint too bad. If you want to be able to go hard for a couple of hours then you better get used to it - at least that's what the coach said. Bstard could tell when I'd been slacking. Fecker. LOL
In the winter, yeah, I do those indoors. Boring as fark but there's no good roads around here to train and night. Plus it saves time - there's no farting about waiting for traffic lights of which there's about a dozen in 2 miles that I gotta go through in order to get into the nicer routes.
When it stays light till about 7.30pm I go out. I've got a mix of nice pan flat farm lands and hills ranging from nice 7 to 12% jobbies that take a few minutes to a couple of stupid hard hills that climb 2,300ft in less that 5 miles - and that's with a couple of downhills in them. I've seen Jonathan Vaughters and Chris Horner battle up the hardest one in a "epic" 7 mile mass start hillclimb, not too long after Vaughters set the record on Ventoux. He was suffering like a pig in 39x27.
She appears to have forgotten part of her outfit.LordLeighGungie said:
Oh yeah .......... and greetings from the house of pain known as exam study. This post is my small bit of creative avoidance, now back to learning about the histopathology of serrated adenoma and conventional adenomas and hyperplastic polyps.
I have not been on a bike in months and I am the size of a small elephant.
I have not been on a bike in months and I am the size of a small elephant.
I still couldn't do it. Hats off to you old bean.swampy1970 said:
Are you still dropping the kilos? And do you reckon you've put on weight with muscle mass gain?
Opening being the operative word.LordLeighGungie said:
Serious for a sec... this ad freaks the shiit out of me now. Used to be a larf at the rehab 'bend your knee' bit, but having experienced 0.1% of something similar - ffarkkk....
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyYTPRX1CCQ]YouTube - "Bones" aka "Bend your knee Katie" TAC seat belt safety TV ad[/ame]
Unserious again.
Hydrotherapy next week, can I p1ss in the pool?
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyYTPRX1CCQ]YouTube - "Bones" aka "Bend your knee Katie" TAC seat belt safety TV ad[/ame]
Unserious again.
Hydrotherapy next week, can I p1ss in the pool?
classic1 said:
Thankfully, I'll be in the one place in California that's devoid of phone service and won't have access to a TV when that match takes place. If it's one team we'll lose against it'll be the yanks.
I'll add to your predictions and say that Wayne Rooney will break one of his metatarsal bones again and will be out, only after decking two Americans though.
paulambry said:
I reckon you could - once you get used to not setting off too hard the rest of the training definitely feels easier. I know that if I don't check the powermeter fairly often at the start of a hard session, especially when I'm feeling good, I invariably ride too hard.
I put on a Kg through basic carbo loading this week but that's about it. No increase in muscle mass, if anything I've lost a bit.
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